Between the World Wars, Renger-Patzsch was one of the champions of straight photography in Germany, and an advocate for a modern aesthetic style known as Neue Sachlichkeit, or "new objectivity." His goal was to search for the underlying essence and universality of all the objects in the world-the essential subject of his 1928 publication Die welt ist schön, "The World Is Beautiful." This botanical study shows the underside of the common parasol mushroom, found in woods and pastures throughout the northern hemisphere.